Heretofore, in a usual in-vehicle information device such as a car-navigation device or the like, in order to execute a function assigned to any one of operation keys displayed on a display connected to that device, an operation is performed in such a manner that the operation key displayed on a screen of the display is identified using a touch panel, physical keys corresponding to the respective operation keys, or an operation device such as a rotary switch, a cross key or the like.
Accordingly, there is a problem that, in the case where the operation is performed using, for example, the touch panel, this causes the user to release his/her hand from the steering wheel, thus making it difficult to perform the operation during driving and further causing trouble in driving.
Meanwhile, in the case of the physical keys, the number of the physical keys increases in proportion to the number of the operation keys, so that there is a problem that, when the number of the operation keys is large, it is difficult to arrange all the physical keys corresponding to the operation keys on the steering wheel.
Further, although it is not impossible to arrange the rotary switch or the cross key on the steering wheel, such a relatively large device is undesirable to be arranged in such a limited arrangement space, and there is a problem that, in order to identify each of the operation keys, a complex operation becomes necessary as the number of the operation keys displayed on the display increases, thus making it difficult to perform the operation during driving and further causing trouble in driving.
As a measure to solve such a problem, there is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1, a technology which provides a vehicle control apparatus that allows the driver to control an in-vehicle control system without releasing his/her hand from the steering wheel when operating a transmission control device for an automatic transmission or any of vehicle-mounted devices.